> What problem are you trying to solve here? Â Some use cases are
> needed. This should Just Work - I've never had to use alsaconf, and
> my distro (Ubuntu) no longer ships it.

for example, the Gentoo user mailing list is full of questions like "I
did follow the excellent Gentoo ALSA user guide, but I still get no
sound." How can a user who just bought a USB audio device make it the
default device? How can a user interested in JACK easily find the right
settings for his card? How does (or why must) a user know which module
to use for his card? How can a user disable a certain card?

All this is of little interest for myself, I have learned how to set up
my system. But new linux audio users should never be in need to edit
config files manually in vi.